Start with a temperature check 2° at 10AM, but beautiful clear blue skies. I am now very glad that I have lugged a large coat all around USA and UK to Europe.
We head off walking to Wencelas Square this morning, in the afternoon we realised that we could have gone a much shorter and less circuitous route to get to the square. I headed off correctly, but once we reached a busy expressway, the best course of action seemed to be to go left, right was the answer and get to the other side via an underpass.
The Old Town is truly amazing with so many buildings all with great designs and statues, to understand all of the history and background I need to be here for some months, or read up in Lonely Planet which is what I have started to do. We headed for the Old Town Square.
One of the most popular attractions in the Old Town Square is the Astronomical Clock. The Prague Astronomical Clock is mounted on the wall of the Old Town city hall. The clock was first installed in 1410, making it the third-oldest astronomical clock in the world and the only one still working. The clock mechanism itself is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, "The Walk of the Apostles", a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles and other moving sculptures, including a figure of Death (represented by a skeleton) striking the time; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months. Absolutely amazing design, the crowd gather around this as it starts to come up to the hour every hour. It just doesn't lose any fascination for people who have seen it time and time again.
The Astro Clock
So much activity in the Old Town Square, the vendors selling Kransky sausages and great ham off the bone which they cut directly off the spit, as well as Czech beer, mulled wine and so on. The trick with the ham is that there is a price on the whiteboard menu, and in smaller print that is sold by weight eg per 100 grams, but of course they will cut you as much as you want, then weigh it and charge you accordingly, the locals know this so select the portion size knowing pretty much what they will be paying.
Get a load of this spit, this would not look out of place at home
There was even a guy selling Honey Mead wine, now that was a nice drop as well, which is locally made.
Win was smiling after she had a few sips
We also wandered back to Charles Bridge, I thought that it was packed on Friday, not so, Saturday is even more packed. So packed that I gave up trying to take a photo as there were so many people milling around is such close proximity.
Sunday
Lets continue with the weather report 0° at 8AM, 2° at 9AM, and in the afternoon 4° at 4PM. Apart from that beautiful clear blue skies.
So today we headed down to the river to take a boat cruise. These arrange from hourly, two hourly lunch cruises or longer ones. I chose the hour tour, epic mistake should have gone for a longer cruise that would have gone up thru one of the locks. Having said that we really did enjoy the cruise and got to see some of the fantastic buildings and scenery from the water.
Centre right of this shot is Prague Castle & St Vitus Cathedral, one of the many shots from the boat
After we got off the boat we went in search of the Kransky sausages again, and no problem finding a vendor at all.
We then headed upriver to have a closer look at the locks in operation, well I was keen, Win forced herself and just couldn't understand why I thought that it was fantastic and watched for far greater length of time than she would have liked.
Restaurant experiences.
Number 1. Walking back to the apartment, we decided that s nice wine would be in order, as it turns out I picked a rather upmarket restaurant,and keep in mind as we are in Wencelas Square, it is a tourist ripoff. The French Malbec we had was excellent, the two glasses would almost equal a bottle I am sure. Time to pay, Win offered to use her Amex, as she had seen the Amex accepted here sign on the door. The guy tried 5 times and the little machine just wouldn't work, he reset the device, he reset the modem, nothing worked. I pity this guy as they go into the evening meal time. So we paid by cash 900 CZK. This now means that I just have enough cash to pay the Taxi when we go to the airport.
Number 2. So out for dinner that evening, wandered around the local area, and as I was getting peckish, I just decided to pick any restuarant "Retro" looked to fit the bill. If you come to Prague you will discover that the no smoking indoors rule is nowhere near in place as yet. So this bar & restaurant had for some reason closed the non smoking area, but as it was quiet and no one was smoking at the time I thought that this would be OK, not so, a couple of smokers, but it does get to you.
The meals we ordered were nice as was the wine and Italian Merlot. I went to pay, and I know that Amex is not really accepted here in Prague (as with a lot of European countries), so I offered my Mastercard. Sorry sir, or Czech words to that effect, we do not accept any credit cards, cash only. I protested as there was no sign on the door explaining this, as usual Win was embarrassed and just asked me to pay up. So I did this using my last 900 CZK which was to be for the Taxi. The bill was 818 CZK, and I made sure that I got all the balance back for the 900 I had offered - bastard. So strike Retro Restaurant & Bar off your list when in Prague for two reasons. Oh and now I don't have the 900 CZK for the taxi tomorrow morning.
Now compare - 900 for two glasses of wine and two bottles of water, then in the evening one bottle of wine and two main meals (Salmon & Chicken) for 818, however I still prefer the afternoon's relaxation
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